Putting lies in children’s mouths

A provocative public awareness campaign is hitting the streets in 20 hotly contested federal ridings, urging voters to pressure the Harper government to do more to fight climate change on the eve of a major international summit in Copenhagen.

The campaign is spearheaded by several environmental groups that have analyzed election results to identify key neighbourhoods inside the ridings in Ontario and Quebec. They are also targeting young families with radio ads that feature a child who uses some colourful language to ask why parents aren’t doing more on climate change.

“Rising sea levels, scarier storms, famine and war. I mean, holy ship,” says the child in radio ads that will start airing on Tuesday in the federal battleground regions of Kitchener, Waterloo and London.